1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrophotographic member for use as an electrophotographic plate. More particularly, it relates to improvements in an electrophotographic member which employs amorphous silicon for a photoconductive layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As photoconductive materials to be used for electrophotographic members, there have heretofore been inorganic substances such as Se, CdS and ZnO and organic substances such as polyvinyl carbazole (PVK) and trinitrofluorenone (TNF). Although they exhibit high photoconductivities, they have the disadvantage that the layers of the substances exhibit insufficient hardnesses, so they have their surfaces flawed or wear away during the operations as the electrophotographic members. In addition, many of these materials are substances harmful to the human body. It is therefore unfavorable that the layers wear away to adhere on copying paper even if in small amounts. In order to improve these disadvantages, it has been proposed to employ amorphous silicon for the photoconductive layer (refer to, for example, the official gazette of Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 54-78135). In general, however, the amorphous silicon layer exhibits a dark resistivity which is too low for the electrophotographic member. The amorphous silicon layer having a high resistivity on the order of 10.sup.10 .OMEGA..multidot.cm exhibits a photoelectric gain being too low, and only an unsatisfactory one has been obtained as the electrophotographic member.